Wednesday, November 21, 2012

According to reports published by both The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan has been approached to write one of the two post-Episode VII Star Wars movies screenplays. The Reporter adds that Kasdan's deal is supposedly already closed.

Also said to have been asked to write the screenplay for Episode VIII or Episode IX is screenwriter Simon Kinburg. His credits include the screenplay for Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Sherlock Holmes and X-Men: First Class.

Disney/Lucasfilm have not confirmed the hiring of Kasdan or Kingberg yet, nor revealed which writer would be writing what particular Star Wars movie chapter.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

With the sale of Star Wars to the Walt Disney company, the movie studio is planning on creating a new trilogy of Star Wars movies set after Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. The first of these new films will be the as-yet untitled Episode VII, announced for release sometime in 2015.

After Episode VII comes out, Disney also made it known that they want to release a new Star Wars movie every two to three years. This would pencil a prospective release date for Star Wars Episode IX at some point in 2019.

During the announcement of the sale of Lucasfilm and the Star Wars property to Disney, it was mentioned that George Lucas had already submitted story ideas for Episode IX as well as the two earlier Star Wars movies in the forthcoming new sequel trilogy. Precisely what those concepts are remain unknown at the present time.